Malkin addressed the "ghost of John McCain" during a speech at a Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday.
In her fiery speech at the Conference, Malkin slammed both Democrats and moderate Republicans for failing to protect the US from violations of the nation's immigration policies, from illegal entry to visa overstayers.
"E-verify has stalled", Malkin said, referring to a system that checks migrants applying for jobs for their legal immigration status. "Sanctuary cities have metastasized, and both parties are to blame".
"And yes, I'm looking at you, retired [Speaker] Paul Ryan; and yes, I'm looking at you, [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell", she added, referring to the former Republican House speaker from Wisconsin and the current Senate majority leader from Kentucky, respectively.
"And yes, I'm looking at you, Bush family; and yes, I'm looking at you, the ghost of John McCain", she continued, with a skyward gesture. As she the named personalities, the audience gave her a standing ovation.
Both the late President George H.W. Bush and the late Senator John McCain advocated for a process that would have allowed illegal immigrants to apply for citizenship. Opponents of these policies — Malkin among them — called the process an "amnesty" for immigration violators, according to a USA Today report.
"How is it that we have Republicans on Capitol Hill that are doing the bidding of the Dreamer movement?" Malkin said earlier about protecting from deportation migrants who entered the US illegaly as minors. "What about our dreams?"
Senator McCain's widow, Cindy McCain took to Twitter to react to Malkin's speech.
"You never knew @SenJohnMcCain", Cindy McCain wrote Friday in a tweet reposted by daughter Meghan. "You should be so lucky".
John McCain, a longtime senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's 2008 nominee for president, died last year from brain cancer. He was a frequent critic of the Trump administration.